On 29-1-2010 23:23, Warp wrote:
> andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
>> It is not the skin tome, it is the cultural background. (almost) all IQ 
>> test favour white Europeans, because they refer in subtle ways to things 
>> that appear to be common knowledge by the people who design these tests. 
>> They also put an emphasis on things that we as Europeans (or is 
>> Caucasian the term mostly used in the US?) find important. Sometimes 
>> that is valid and sometimes it is not.
> 
>   I don't think that's true. Maybe it was true 50 years ago, but nowadays
> IQ tests are specifically designed to be detached of all cultural backgrounds.

They are more aware of the problem, that does not mean it is solved, 
besides they are still using old ones too. Ask my sister ;)

>   Education can have some effect on IQ tests (because education can eg.
> train a person to think geometrically), but AFAIK in the US and especially
> Europe all people have had the exact same education for quite many decades.

No they haven't. May I remind you of the private school debate here some 
time ago. Remember who started that thread?

>   If some group of people doesn't *want* to get educated, that's a different
> problem. It's *their* problem, not the problem in IQ or aptitude tests.

I can't see where this one comes from. Are you aware that this could be 
interpreted as a racist remark? I am sure you don't mean to, but 
suddenly starting to talk about "people that don't *want* to get 
educated" in a discussion on how race influences test results is not a 
smart move IMHO.

>> So, I know that even a test on digital technology can have a cultural 
>> bias. Therefore it wouldn't surprise me if a test for fireman would 
>> also. You would have to see the actual test to see if that bias is 
>> justified or not.
> 
>   I have hard time thinking of a question in a fireman test which a white
> citizen of the US is able to answer due to his culture but a black citizen
> of the US isn't,

I know you find that hard. You have said similar things many times. Yet, 

Tatsachen" you might get what I meant, but the majority here will 
probably not. In fact on average more white people would get it than 
black. Yet it has nothing to do with color. The same mechanism works in 
almost all tests, albeit often more subtle.


> especially if both have gone to the same schools.

well, they didn't (on average), that is precisely the point.

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